Light: Crash Course Astronomy #24
In order to understand how we study the universe, we need to talk a little bit about light. Light is a form of energy. Its wavelength tells us its energy and color. Spectroscopy allows us to...
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Hey, Phil Plait here and this is Crash Course Astronomy. In last week’s episode, I mentioned that nearly all the information we have about the Universe comes in the form of light. But how does that light get made? What can it tell us about these astronomical objects? And honestly, what is light? Here’s a hint. Light is a wave. It took centuries of thought and experiments to figure that out, and to also figure out that, at its most basic, light is a form of energy. It travels in waves, similar to waves of water in the ocean. Except with light, the things doing the waving are electric and magnetic fields. Literally—light is a self-contained little bundle of these two fields, intertwined. That’s why we call light electromagnetic radiation. The details ...
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Hey, Phil Plait here and this is Crash Course Astronomy. In last week’s episode, I mentioned that nearly all the information we have about the Universe comes in the form of light. But how does that light get made? What can it tell us about these astronomical objects? And honestly, what is light? Here’s a hint. Light is a wave. It took centuries of thought and experiments to figure that out, and to also figure out that, at its most basic, light is a form of energy. It travels in waves, similar to waves of water in the ocean. Except with light, the things doing the waving are electric and magnetic fields. Literally—light is a self-contained little bundle of these two fields, intertwined. That’s why we call light electromagnetic radiation. The details ...
